FTB - Announcement Edition

First off, let's give thanks to Queen Victoria for being born around this weekend and providing us with a holiday just as the warm weather is ramping into gear.

Secondly, let's give a hearty boo to the weather for not cooperating.

Furthermore, Canada faces Sweden at 4:50pm today in the IIHF semi-finals. The schedule could not be better although a lot of little cousins are going to be disappointed that they won't be watching Treehouse. Good thing I can take on 29 five year olds.

Most importantly, it's time for a special announcement. I've been hinting at it every time I mention that diaries will soon have a much less demeaning name but the day is soon upon us. On May 20th (freak Texas weather permitting) this site will be migrating over to the new SB Nation 2.0 platform. What does that mean for you guys? Tonnes. The brains behind the development will have a post up in the morning outlining the new features and trying to explain just how awesome this will make the site. To try to get an idea of the changes check out some of the sites that have already made the migration:

• Athletics Nation
  
  
• Pats Pulpit
  
  
• Bluebird Banter
  
  

The developers will also be around to help answer any questions and to fix any bugs. The platform has been rolled out slowly and each successive wave has helped hone the feature and tighten up the platform so we are getting a pretty refined version. I've been able to play with a beta version and I think you guys are going to love it.

One of the main benefits is that you will have one log-in across the network's blogs. They have worked out a way of deciding who gets to use a username if there are any conflicts and I've been checking some of your usernames and I have bad news for Junior but you're going to have to think up a new name!

Anyway, like I said, there will be a lot of help available in the first few days as we make the change but I hope you'll love the new platform as much as I think that you will. So don't be worried if you check out the site in the wee hours of May 20th and get an error message. It's just the magic happening.

And onto the links...

• Mirtle tosses a heads up about the IIHF Hall of Fame inductions. Who remembers Angela James being left off the 1998 Olympic team? If you didn't follow hockey or were too young to remember it was huuuuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggge and of course it probably cost Canada the first women's gold medal.
  
  
• Moose tries to lay out a game plan for the Leafs and Oilers. I am intrigued by some of his suggestions but still enraged that he'd dare to bring up 1993. Make sure to vote in their poll after you listen to the podcast and find out just when I cursed Moose's name out loud.
  
  
• Steve reminds us that even though the Leafs aren't playing it is still a pretty big day for the club. Stralman is playing Canada so hopefully he picks up 5 points in a 6-5 loss. Meanwhile, the Marlies' Conference Championship series begins tonight agaist the Chicago Wolves and our old friend Karel Pilar. Damn health troubles!